Shorealone Films photographer Matt Hartman was there and took these images.

The new capsule, whose shape is reminiscent of the Apollo command module, is equipped with 8 powerful engines and landing legs that make precision touchdowns, like those performed by helicopters, possible. Rather than parachuting into the ocean the new spaceship can hypothetically land on any kind of surface.

The reusable spaceship could be used to launch NASA's astronauts into space, thereby restoring the U.S.'s ability to launch and recover its astronauts.

The U.S. lost this capability after the Space Shuttles were retired in 2011. Since then, American astronauts have traveled to the International Space Station via Russia's Soyuz. This costs the U.S. some $60 million per astronaut.

Along with the SNC Dream Chaser and the Boeing CST-100, SpaceX Dragon is one of the three commercial spaceflight transportation systems currently being developed with the financial and technical support of NASA. NASA will eventually select one or two of these projects to launch humans into space beginning in 2017.